The third round of the National Cricket League (NCL) will resume today without the players who were selected for Bangladesh's second-string side, who are leaving for South Africa on Wednesday.

Their departure will mean that the league will miss out on some of the in-form players. Barisal, for instance, won't have the services of 19-year-old Mosaddek Hossain, who has hit 423 runs in the competition thus far and currently tops the run-getters list.

Currently placed second in Tier Two, Barisal will meet third-placed Chittagong at the port city. Hosts Chittagong, on the other hand, won't miss any player. After a defeat in the previous match, Tamim Iqbal and co will hope they can perform better in the third round.

The other two teams of Tier Two, Rajshahi and Sylhet, will face-off at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra.

Mushfiqur Rahim, who had taken a leave and did not play the last match, is set to be back and will lead the Tier-Two leaders again. Bottom-placed Sylhet will hope they can shrug off their misery. Rajshahi's Sabbir Rahman and

Sylhet pacer Abu Jayed Chowdhury will also miss out due to the A team's tour.

The worst affected though will be Khulna, currently placed second in Tier One. They will be missing out on Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun and Al-Amin Hossain.

Besides that, they will also be gutted by the fact that Shakib Al Hasan is on leave. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who was supposed to play for Khulna in this round will also not be available as the ODI skipper was diagnosed with dengueyesterday.

They will host third-placed Rangpur at the Sheikh Abu Naser

Stadium. Rangpur themselves will field a side without two of their top players - Liton Das and Mahmudul Hasan - both of whom will be touring with theAteam.

League leaders Dhaka will face last-placed Dhaka Metro at the Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah. It will be a challenge for Dhaka to maintain their position at the top and continue their winning run since they will have to field a side without Rony Talukdar, Shuvagata Hom and Taijul Islam. Especially since both Shuvagata and Taijul played crucial roles in Dhaka’s last win.

Metro on the other hand, will be without their opener Sadman Islam.